Cord blood banking and transplantation in 2010.

摘要

After two decades of laboratory and clinical experimentation resulting in more than 20,000 transplants in children and adults, the term 'epilogue' (derived from the Greek terms epi meaning 'to the end' and logos meaning 'discourse') used by Broxmeyer [1] in the title of his excellent review on umbilical cord blood transplantation unequivocally highlights the consolidated role of cord blood as a valuable therapeutic source of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells for family-related and unrelated allogeneic transplantation. The state of the art of the 'third chronological avenue' - the first and second being the use of bone marrow and mobilized peripheral blood, respectively - in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation pioneered in 1988 by Gluckman is thoroughly described in nine articles [2-10] anticipating Broxmeyer's 'epilogue' in a recent themed issue of Seminars in Hematology. Clinicians willing to update their knowledge on the clinical results of cord blood transplantation in several disease groups will find careful descriptions of the pros and cons of cord blood, successes and difficulties in different pathological conditions and guidance on selection of the best cord blood unit for their transplant candidates in Refs. [2-10].